On Friday, the Editors Guild wrote a letter to BCCI president Sharad Pawar complaining about the restrictions on usage of photographs. The guild letter states: ``This is a ridiculous claim, unheard of in the annals of free India's media tradition. The Constitution of India and prevalent socio-political norms have given complete freedom to the media to cover news events in every sphere, including sport. In an age when most newspapers are also available to online readers, this stipulation is untenable. We condemn these conditions and refuse to accept such restraints. Never before has the media been restrained from, or denied the right to cover an event of public interest. The IPL has appallingly sought to give an extremely limited definition to the term `media'.''

In effect, to safeguard its commercial interests, BCCI has entered hostile territory which will eventually deprive sports fans. Said a senior SJFI official: ``If BCCI wants coverage of the event it will have to remove these restrictions. Why only photos? They can even claim ownership of the text reports.''

Faced with such strong protests, will the BCCI play ball and relent? The germ of the idea was planted by Cricket Australia last November when it demanded money from news photo agencies to cover the Australia-Sri Lanka Tests, a revenue-generation idea the BCCI had wholeheartedly supported. IPL governing council member I S Bindra has gone on record saying ``we are treating photographs like TV production. But we are not being rigid here".

With websites being denied accreditation, it's obvious BCCI has put its point across. The question is, won't such blatant commercialization of cricket kill the golden goose?